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Enable Live Read with the S3-Compatible API
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Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage Live Read provides the ability to read data from an object while that object is uploading.
Typically, large files that are hundreds of GBs or multiple TBs in size can take hours to upload as an object using an operation such as S3 Create Multipart Upload. This results in a considerable delay in using these files until the upload process has been completed. Live Read is intended to eliminate this delay in file access.
To use Live Read, add the custom x-backblaze-live-read-enabled
HTTP header with a value of true to the following S3-compatible API operations:
Part Size
When creating a Live Read-enabled request using S3 Create Multipart Upload, it is possible to specify the part size by including the x-backblaze-live-read-part-size
HTTP header.
The part size (in bytes) has a minimum allowable size of 5 MB (5,000,000 bytes) and a maximum allowable size of 5 GiB (5,368,709,120 bytes). The specified part size is used for all of the parts except the last part.
For guidance on implementing a custom header, refer to the documentation for your S3-compatible SDK.
Watch the following tutorial to learn more about accelerating production workflows and asset deliveries using Live Read.
You can also view this webinar to learn how to accelerate media workflows by reading growing objects in the cloud with Backblaze B2 Live Read.
Note
Live Read represents a departure from Backblaze's traditional focus on immutability in that two Live Read requests for the same target object and the data range are not guaranteed to have the same result. This is because the uploader may have replaced one or more parts in the multipart object that are contained within the download’s requested data range. However, it does not ultimately violate the immutability assumptions that are used internally for storing data because each part remains immutable.